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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24692317">Midnight Snacks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/IDsimmons/pseuds/IDsimmons'>IDsimmons</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>In the Right Direction [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adorable FitzSimmons (Agents of SHIELD), Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Kid Fic, Perthshire Cottage, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:35:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,328</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24692317</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/IDsimmons/pseuds/IDsimmons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz is having nightmares and Jemma catches a thief in the kitchen red handed.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Leo Fitz &amp; Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>In the Right Direction [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698988</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Midnight Snacks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If you haven't read Side Effects...the cliff notes version if you want to read this on its own is basically that FitzSimmons basically have a psychic link after the mind prison that works when they are both unconscious/sleeping. After this I have one more fic left in the series...at least for now. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who read/left a comment/kudos :) :) :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A bleary eyed Jemma Fitz-Simmons meandered into the kitchen in search of her missing husband. She eyed the clock grumpily, sighing, noting it read midnight. Fitz hadn't been sleeping well this week and rather than disrupting her own sleep with their shared nightmares he apparently has taken to working through the night. At first, she gave him space but after almost a week of him actively avoiding falling asleep at the same times as her, she has had enough. He was going to sleep, she didn't care if she had to tie him to the bed to make it happen. She flipped on the light in the kitchen about to start the process of making them both tea, only to catch a 2 foot tall thief clad in dinosaur footie pajamas, red handed. </p><p>
  <span>"Cole Mackenzie, what are you doing awake and out of bed?" The mischievous two year old halts mid tiptoe and smiles around a mouth full of chocolate chip cookie crumbs. He makes a break for the living room where Jemma spots his accomplice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Leopold Fitz. Seriously?" The blue eyed pair looked up at her innocently, Jemma's eyes trained on the exchange of cookies between the toddler and his soon to be deceased dad.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We were hungry." Fitz shrugged  nonchalantly, tapping his cookie to his son's before biting into it. Jemma kept her face neutral despite the adorable picture of her boys snuggled together on the couch, their sweet toothes overriding any bit of regard for bedtimes apparently. Cole draped himself across Fitz's lap, Fitz had one arm secured around Cole's, for once, still body, both mouths stuffed with sweets. They sat there unharried despite being found out, completely satisfied with themselves. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Alright, let's go, let's go brush those teeth, again. Off to bed. No more midnight escapades for you." Jemma shepherded her cheeky little boy back to his bed despite his dramatic protests. She turned when she saw Fitz also getting up to vacate the room. "Not you, you stay. I will be right back." Jemma said in a tone that left no room for arguments. Fitz sunk his weight back into the couch, head in hands, tired beyond comprehension. He heard Jemma bid good night to their most mischievous child and tried to brace himself for the conversation they were about to have. He had been shutting her out, he knew that she would be hurt and that it wasn't sustainable but he couldn't burden her with the nightmares he's been having. Rationally, he knew it was inevitable. Keeping things like this from each other was physically impossible because of the psychic link they shared when they were in any state of unconsciousness, a side effect from the Chronicom mind prison. He couldn't avoid sleep forever, no matter how much he wanted to shield her from his stupid brain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometimes it didn't matter how far away from danger they ran, the feeling that something bad was going to happen, the curse that was both a perpetual joke and a shadow, accosted him without the slightest bit of warning. It would follow him around for days, a habitual dread that seized him when things were going particularly well. He was working on it, they both were, he suspected Jemma was still better at pushing those feelings down, not giving them the time of day to deal with them whereas he has an opposite tendency to wallow. He felt like he was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jemma returned to the living room holding two steaming mugs and wordlessly offered him his. She sank down next to him and for a minute there was blissful calm, just the two of them side by side sipping tea, just as it had always been, the simplicity of the moment floored him. The span of their relationship usually does that to him when he stops and thinks about it. Those painfully awkward kids at sixteen meeting for the first time and every single second spent after that bickering, learning, drinking tea, discovering, laughing, crying, screaming, falling in love, and creating a life together filled him with awe because what did he ever do to deserve all of this? He would never understand, but he loved it all the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jemma rested an unwavering hand against his shoulder and ran her fingers along the familiar planes of his back, trying to soothe some of the tension built up there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I can't stop feeling like everything is going to disappear, that any second it's going to be ripped away from me again and I don't think I would survive it, Jemma. Not again." Jemma's fingers trailed down to his clenched fist and pried it apart, lacing her fingers with his and holding on tight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I know, Fitz. I get the same feeling sometimes...like entire days where I'm waiting for the ceiling to cave in or to be taken away to some desolate planet again. It's not just you." She spoke quietly, thumb tracing the callouses along the pads of his fingers built up over decades of work. Fitz furrowed his brow searching his memory for any recent moments he could pick out where he might have missed something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You never said-"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I thought it was just me and everything is just so busy that I kind of pushed it aside until I forgot about it." She finished lamely, still playing with his fingers tangled in hers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I can't make myself stop thinking about it Jemma, it keeps going around in circles in my mind until that's all I can focus on. I can't stop and then I go to sleep and it's there too." Fitz ran a frantic hand through his messy curls, squeezing his eyes shut and then back open to see Jemma staring down at their entwined hands, confused. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I was there with you every night, I never saw anything but our normal dreams, how, when…?" She trailed off, her brain going through the days before Fitz stopped sleeping, coming up with nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It was the night Cole had a fever, you stayed up with him, remember?" Comprehension dawned on her face and her grip tightened on the hand grasped in hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Oh, right." Jemma acknowledged softly, silence filling the space between them. Fitz was fighting to keep his eyes open, the rhythm of her fingers brushing against his skin, relaxing him. Jemma wordlessly wrapped her hand around his and tugged him gently towards their bedroom. He wrapped an arm around her and leaned heavily against his forever partner as they made their way to their room. Shuffling into their room and quietly clicking the door shut behind them, Jemma turned back to her husband and spoke softly with the conviction that was woven into her DNA, "Fitz, I can't promise you that nothing bad will ever happen again but I can promise you that I will always fight with every molecule of my being to be right beside you and our family. I know you will do the same but we can't control the universe. We can only control how we act right now, and right now we both need sleep." Fitz, throat tight with emotion, pulled her into his arms, clutching her to him before kissing her softly. They both got ready for bed and Fitz reluctantly crawled under the blanket. Jemma immediately burrowed into his chest, it had been nearly impossible to fall asleep without his steady breathing and heartbeat thrumming right beneath her ear. She stroked along his arm and down his chest until his breathing even out and he finally succumbed to sleep. Jemma closed her eyes and snuggled closer to his warm body, she had missed him so much this week. She was asleep in minutes, mind and body humming with content.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Fitz opened his eyes to find himself back in their bedroom but the light coming through the window was shining bright. He was standing in the middle of the room while Jemma sat propped up against the headboard, a giant stuffed monkey leaned against the bedside table and an eight year old Peggy and two year old Maisie huddled around their Mum and infant brother as they excitedly talked over each other, trying to come up with a suitable name for the newest and largest member of their monkey family. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fitz felt anxiety curling around his chest as one by one in eerie silence each member of his family disintegrated into dust. Fitz stood frozen in horror as his daughters went from happily laughing to nothing in the space of seconds. Jemma holding their newly born son, one second engrossed in the memory with him and the next calling his name as their son turned to dust in her arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Fitz?!" Jemma called out panicked but still focused on trying to keep him from hyperventilating. "Fitz!" She called even louder, "Go to the new memory." Jemma yelled trying to get him to hear what she was saying. " Fitz! It's not re-" Jemma disintegrated before his eyes and he was left in a silent room, the only sound he could hear was his sharp breaths as he tried and failed to take in oxygen as black spots crowded his blurry vision. Fitz noticed a white door in his narrowing field of vision and dove for it, ripping the door open with shaking hands, desperate to escape this place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Well, that was thoroughly unpleasant." Jemma's wavering voice was tinged with a suppressed panic he could pick up on as easily as if it was his own. Fitz's labored breathing completely stops when he hears her voice but still can't see her. His eyes scan their back garden and he can't force his breathing into a normal pattern. Jemma finally walks out of their backdoor in synchrony with the moment from their shared memory and Fitz raced to her kissing her hard, fingers desperately assuring himself that she was still in front of him. The kids come barrelling out of the door behind her, full of life and filling the unforgiving silence with gleeful giggles. Fitz feels the tight grip of fear lodged in his chest loosen as he clung to Jemma with unyielding fingers and stared, unblinking as their kids chased each other in the grass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Th-the-they are ok. They aren't…" Fitz either loses the word or can't bring himself to say it outloud, Jemma isn't sure which. "G-g-gone? Right? You didn't leave me a-alone?" Jemma clings to him, trying not to show just how much the nightmare shook her as well. The vision of her babies turning to dust around her, her infant son fading from her arms, Fitz's broken, petrified face as she tried to reach out for him. She took a deep breath and focused on Fitz.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Everyone is fine, Fitz. Barring anymore midnight cookie heists, they are all sleeping soundly in their beds. As are we. Everyone is alright, Fitz." Jemma then fused herself to him as she repeated the mantra that they were all fine, needing the comfort just as much as he did, the loud joyful voices of their kids playing surrounded them like a warm cocoon as they hung on tight to each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fitz woke up with the sun bright in his eyes and nearly had a heart attack when he felt the empty space beside him. He sprung out of bed quickly, moving to the kid's bedrooms throwing open each door to find each bed empty. His heart hammering in his chest and his vision narrowing, he sprinted down the stairs to an empty kitchen. He heard Cole's wild shrieks of laughter and he let himself breathe before stepping outside barefoot into the late morning sunshine to confirm the wholeness of four precious, smiling humans. Jemma sat in the grass in her jeans and he suspected one of his tshirts, fending off three colorful foam swords with her own, a very much appreciated gift from Hunter and Bobbi. He noticed the dark circles under her eyes even as she threw herself wholeheartedly into their game of make believe. He walked over, damp grass squidging against his toes and plopped himself next to his wife, leaning his forehead against her shoulder as she called a timeout to their battle. Peggy walked over wrapping her arms around her Da's neck and ruffled his already bedhead wrecked curls. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Good morning, you finally went to sleep!" Peggy, always the chipper morning person, hugged herself to Fitz's back, enjoyed the grump that was her Da as soon as he woke up. Peggy looked from her Mum back to her Da, the ten year old always observing and assessing, noticing something was a little bit different about them today. The nightmares must be really scary, she thought to herself as she immediately considered solutions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span> "I think we should have a pillowfort sleepover tonight." Peggy said decisively. "Can we, Mum?" Peggy pleaded, "Da? You make the best forts. Please?" Jemma sent Fitz a questioning look and he quickly nodded in agreement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Sure, Bug. We're also going to need to head inside soon because we are going to have to make more cookies today. Certain cookie thieves, who shall remain nameless, ate them all. And what's a sleepover without cookies?" Chants of cookies erupted and sword fights were immediately forgotten, all three kids swarmed their parents to find out just how soon these cookies were planned to happen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span> "How about you all go inside and wash your hands and get changed, Peggy can you help your brother? We'll start setting up." The trio ran inside in a flurry of excitement and energy, leaving behind a chasm of peaceful silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fitz turned to Jemma when the back door shut and tackled her into the grass, peppering kisses all over her face, Jemma laughed at his antics before kissing him soundly and then pulling away before they got lost in the moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're amazing, you know that right Jemma?" Jemma reached up and smoothed a thumb over the ridge of his eyebrow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Obviously. But what brought this on, you old romantic."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Nothing. Just you. I mean, you stayed up with me half the night and then spent the rest of it in my nightmare and then you pop right up and have sword fights in the garden so I can sleep. I don't know how you do it, honestly." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I do it because I have you, you don't get to sell yourself short, I won't have you talk about my husband that way. We do it together." Fitz delicately traced the dark circles under her eyes and she let herself relax into him for another minute before shifting them to their feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Let's go, you know if we're not in there first they will start without us." The parents shuttered at the memory of the three kids taking it upon themselves to start breakfast on their own one morning, leading to an explosion of eggs and flour and a paste that was supposedly pancakes covering every surface of the kitchen and each child from head to toe. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Menaces, the lot of them." Fitz joked, following his wife. The pair swiftly worked to set out everything they needed in a well practiced synchronicity that proceeded to serve them well no matter what task they were tackling. All three kids thundered down the steps like a herd of elephants, clean and ready to follow instructions, mostly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Alright, who wants to measure and who wants to stir?" Jemma asked cheerfully, expecting the same answers she always got. Unfortunately, Maisie has recently been going through a phase where she needed to copy everything that her older sister was doing, much to the frustration of said sister. So while Maisie was usually the go to mixer in their baking operation, recently there have been many raging arguments over every little thing, including this now, apparently. Peggy had always been Jemma's little measuring assistant but she supposed that it was time to start taking turns. Cole was very content in his assigned task, he got to crack the eggs into a glass measuring cup. The trouble with him was that if you stopped paying attention to what he was doing for even a microsecond, he somehow, always, found more eggs and would keep cracking until stopped. He was also prone to adding extra ingredients into various places. Fitz's sole job was to hover around as quality control, making sure that everyone stayed on task, that no egg shells made it into the dough and to keep everything running smoothly while Jemma put together the dough itself. Cole sat on the counter carefully cracking eggs complete with exploding sound effects while Peggy and Maisie fought intensely over who was going to do what. Jemma was about to shut everything down and tell both of them that no one was doing anything when she felt Fitz's hand settle on her shoulder. She took a breath and counted to ten, blocking out the yelling that was grating on her already frazzled nerves. She reached up with a flour dusted hand and squeezed his fingers. He had this one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That's enough. Sit. Now." Fitz yelled over the two girls intent on their screaming match, both red faced and immediately chagrined. Fitz didn't yell often, he really didn't need to, but lately Peggy and Maisie were at each other's throats over any small excuse and he was very much over it. "We are doing this fair and square. No arguments or you both go to your room, understood?" Both girls nodded, finally quiet and listening, eyes fixed to their fidgeting fingers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We are playing a little game your Mum and I call, Roshambo. It's how we made decisions when we...bickered...and until you two figure out how to deal with whatever this is, you are going to use this instead of screaming at each other, ok?" Both girls nodded, curious and intrigued with this new knowledge of their parents. Fitz went through the rules and Jemma stopped what she was doing, smile wide across her face as she picked up Cole from the counter and brought him over to the table with her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Best two out of three? Loser does dishes?" Jemma challenged competitively, it had been such a long time since they'd done this but their hands quickly went into action. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Ro sham bo" Three games were played in quick succession, Jemma crying out in victory, as per usual, while the kids cheered her on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Always respect the outcome," Fitz said even as he groaned in defeat, "Now go ahead Peggy, Maisie your turn. Best two out of three. Winner gets to pick, measuring or mixing. Go on." The two girls faced each other and mimicked their parents motions, small, unsure hands moving slower. Maisie threw her hands up in victory after the third round and Peggy's face crumpled with defeat, Fitz gave her a sharp look and she sighed, resigned to the fact that she was definitely going to have to get better at sharing. Peggy begrudgingly gave up her lifelong job and sat back down at the table waiting for her turn on the mixer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fitz walked up behind Peggy, squeezing her shoulder, knowing she was upset about the outcome but proud she accepted it all the same. Fitz pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over to the dejected little girl, smiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Can't bake without music, Peggy. Pick something good!" Fitz moved away quickly to catch Cole, sly as a fox, about to add an extra handful of something to the bowl Maisie was currently, very carefully measuring sugar into. Fitz scooped him up and set him back in front of the eggs he was working on, the boy offering up a cheeky smile. Peggy scrolled through his music and within seconds Taylor Swift was blaring loudly through the speakers. Jemma raised an eyebrow at him from across the room and he just shrugged his shoulders wholly unashamed. Fitz danced his way over to Peggy, all flailing arms and uncoordinated moves, poignantly ignoring the groan of "Ugh, Fitz" from Jemma behind him. His dancing has definitely not improved since they were teenagers, Jemma was pretty sure it has gotten much, much worse. He reached over and pulled Peggy out of her seat and spun her around before setting her back down on her feet. Peggy flung her curly hair around and spun around wildly, all awkward angles while Fitz circled her doing the same. Cole immediately lost interest in the eggs and slid his body off the counter, nearly giving Jemma a heart attack, to join the dance party, shaking his little body ferociously and completely out of time to the music. Maisie diligently measured out the dry ingredients and then handed her Mum the wet ingredients when she needed them, all while singing loudly and swaying to the music with surprising grace, considering the rest of her family's lack of it. Jemma combined ingredients with a sure hand, spinning and shaking her hips, rubber spatula in hand as her microphone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Pegs, your up." Peggy danced her way over and manned the mixer and rubber spatula with as much focus as she gives to everything in her life, completely incapable of giving less than one hundred percent. She finished mixing the dough, adding in the bag of chocolate chips while still flailing about, she clearly got her dance moves from her dad, Jemma thought as she joined in, not faring much better in the dance move department. What the Fitz-Simmons family lacked in rhythm and coordination, they made up for in self confidence and enthusiasm. The family of five crowded around the dough, everyone doing their part to form little balls from the dough and lining them up on the baking sheet. Jemma popped them into the oven and set the timer, finally finished. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peggy wandered off to the living room, nestling herself in her favorite place, the window seat overlooking the front yard and found her place in her book immediately getting lost in the words. Maisie and Cole ran off to play a game of their own, completely happy to chase each around, they could spend hours cracking each other up. Fitz started on the mountain of dishes that accumulated while Jemma picked up the phone to order pizza before moving to help Fitz, both of them still dancing their hearts out. The two laughed and talked about absolutely nothing until every single dish was put away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After the surprise of pizza left all three of the kids overly excited, Fitz decided to put all of their extra energy to good use. Fitz instructed each child to gather as many pillows and blankets as they could find in the house. The three kids carried the pillows and blankets from every bedroom in the house and then scavenged the stray throw pillows and blankets from anywhere they could find. Cole struggled immensely but would not be deterred, with all of the boundless energy of a two year old boy he ran up and down the stairs carrying whatever he could fit in his arms. Once he ran out items that he could carry, he began transporting their most favorite of the stuffed animals from their playroom because they couldn't not be invited to the sleepover, obviously. Finally, never having spent a night apart from him, he dragged his stuffed monkey, bigger than any person Cole has ever seen, except Uncle Mack, down the steps and into the living room, collapsing on top of the massive primate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jemma walked into the living room to see a mountain of pillows and blankets already being carefully constructed into an impressive pillow fort. Five mugs were dispersed precariously across the floor along with almost every stuffed animal in the house. Her four favorite people were bunched together laughing, leaning against the most impressive stuffed animal of them all, a stuffed monkey called Sam, even bigger than Fitz and apparently a very comfortable pillow for five. She smiled widely when Maisie scooted closer to Fitz to create a gap for her next to Peggy. Peggy had her little monkey, Mr. Monkey, tucked into her side while Maisie's monkey, Eloise, was sprawled over her legs. Cole had been the lucky recipient of Sam, a traditional gift from their Mum ever since Jemma came back to the island holding out a brand new monkey for the daughter she hadn't seen in months. Jemma had recruited Peggy in the selection of her new little sister's monkey and then both girls helped choose this bigger than life monkey for their new little brother. Jemma didn't have it in her to quelch their enthusiasm when they found this guy at the store, plus she couldn't resist seeing Fitz's face when they brought it home, nearly as good as the real thing. Seeing his face light up with such unadulterated, childlike joy had been worth every penny. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maisie wiggled to get comfortable in her new spot, leaning heavily on Fitz's side. They were all focused mostly on the movie playing across the screen of the tv. Maisie wasn't really paying attention to the scenes of Mulan, even though it was one of her favorite movies. She was more focused on her Da and determined to make him feel better. He was having bad dreams again, she just knew it. Maisie tilted her head and lowered her voice, attempting a whisper but not quite pulling it off, her straight brown hair tickling Fitz's face and hazel eyes wide with concern. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Don't worry Da, we'll protect you from your nightmares and so will Sam." Maisie reached over and tucked a massive brown arm around Fitz offering her warm, shy smile. Fitz's eyes widened, he thought he hid it so well, and pulled the little girl to his chest, hugging her tight. Maisie touched her tiny Jemma Simmons nose to his and gave a look of love and empathy that stole his breath away. His kids, little pieces of the best of them, yet completely their own people never ceased to amaze him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you, Mais." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's ok, but I don't know if anyone ever told you this" Maisie dropped her voice down to a more successful whisper and leaned close to his ear. "You're not very good at pretending." Incapable of keeping her voice at a whisper her sweet, melodic voice increased back to her normal volume as she announced "Mum says it's because you're a little bit dramatic." Fitz gasped in mock hurt, gripping a faked pain in his chest as Maisie giggled before he  reached over and tossed a fluffy pillow towards his smirking wife. A pillow fight was promptly declared and Jemma picked up Cole, holding him in front of her like a human shield as he swung his pillow wildly at any available target. Fitz quickly grasped a nearby Peggy and the pairs let out shrieks of laughter as they dueled. Fitz looked around for his advantage and seized his opportunity quickly, shifting his grip so that he had one arm wrapped securely around Peggy, he reached over and pulled a reluctant warrior, Maisie into the battle. He gave her a reassuring smile and the sisters began a flurry of pillow attacks on their Mum and little brother. Jemma and Cole surrendered and the family collapsed breathless with laughter in their heaps of blankets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Alright, everyone. Pajamas and brush your teeth. Your Da will fix the pillow fort and set up the next movie. Come on." Jemma herded the group to their bedrooms and helped Cole change into his favorite monkey pajamas. He raced back down the stairs yelling monkey noises, the girls opening their doors and joining in as they climbed over each other laughing. Jemma quickly changed and got herself ready for bed and rejoined everyone in the living room. The kids were hyper and bouncing around the room, ready to spend the night camped out in the living room, tucked into a perfectly crafted fort surrounded by every cushion and stuffed animal in their house, snuggled together in one giant lump of a mass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fitz had just about completed his masterpiece, chairs from all over the house tipped and slotted together, sheets were draped and the massive pillow fort took up almost the entirety of the living room. It might just be his best one yet, Jemma thought as she helped line up everyone's pillows and made sure three monkeys were accounted for. Fitz went upstairs to get changed and everyone laid down in a mass of wiggling limbs and the hushed conversations of siblings. Jemma laid her head against Sam the monkey and let her eyes close for a moment until she heard the familiar footsteps of her lifelong best friend. Clad in a gray tshirt that Jemma hasn't had the opportunity to steal yet and a pair of blue plaid pajama bottoms, Fitz started the movie and checked the front and back doors to make sure that they were locked before shutting out the lights. He settled in next to Jemma, arm curling around her as the kids fell silent, enraptured by the beginning tunes of Moana. His fingers carded gently through her hair as he watched her breathing even out. Fitz kept his tired eyes focused on the movie, trying to stay awake, not wanting to revisit the hellscape that was his nightmare. A song from the movie cascaded through the living room, he could hear Maisie singing along softly, it was his favorite part of the movie but he kept his eyes closed, stuck in that strange moment in between awake and asleep. The three Fitz-Simmons kids were whispering intently about something, but he couldn't hear what. His eyes were shut but he wasn't quite fully asleep yet, Jemma was curled against him, sound sleep. He could feel all of the kids get up as the cushions shifted underneath him and he was immediately alert again. He fought to maintain his sleeping facade as he heard Cole's giggles before the two girls promptly shushed him. Fitz untangled himself from Jemma and peeked into the kitchen discreetly, wanting to see what the trio was up to. Peggy was nearly all the way inside of the refrigerator before hefting out the gallon of milk with all of her strength. Maisie and Cole had paired up to push a chair against the counter to reach the cups and most importantly, the cookies. Fitz watched them struggle for a minute before taking pity. He flipped on the light and the three kids froze in their tracks and all Fitz could do was laugh. He took the milk from Peggy's shaking grasp and set it on the counter before pulling out four cups. </span>
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  <span>"What's going on in here?" Jemma walked in, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, her unfocused gaze shifting to Peggy, Maisie and Cole hovering around Fitz waiting patiently for their looted goods. </span>
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  <span>"Midnight snacks?" Fitz offered brazenly and offered a cup of milk and a handful of cookies with a soft smile. Jemma took it and sat down at the table as all five of them gathered, devouring the soft chocolate chip cookies with gusto. Now sleepy and made to brush their teeth once again, one by one they huddled back into the pillow fort, ready to actually sleep. Maisie slept scrunched up in a ball next to her Da, although she made sure Sam and Eloise were both standing guard to protect him from his bad dreams first. Peggy slept curled against Jemma while Cole sprawled out over and around everyone. Jemma reached over to Fitz's outstretched arm, their three little humans between them, trailing her fingers along the length of his forearm, tracing unseen patterns into his skin. Fitz finally drifted off to sleep and for the first time in over a week he didn't have a single nightmare.</span>
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